SoCal Minds

A catch-up lagniappe with a soupcon from all over

From Cal State Fullerton, RAND, CSUN, Loyola Marymount, UCLA, UCR, UCI, Claremont Graduate University, Chapman

Let's play fast catch up. With apologies that the press of fuller time employment for actual pay has cut into the posting here -- and may continue to do so -- here's stuff from around the area worth a gander:

The Bruins open their spiffy, new Terasaki Life Sciences building today, a major facility named after the emeritus surgery prof, transplant pioneer and key developer of tissue typing technology who also donated $50 million to the school.

Also of note in Westwood: a $2.9 million study on gum disease among diabetics with emphasis in new genetic techniques that will let researchers better understand whether changes in health affect body systems and allow certain types of bacteria to flourish. Bruin scholars also will join colleagues from five other schools in a major new scrutiny of climate change in the Southwestern United States, a region that experts predict will be among the most affected by issues related to global warming.

In Fullerton, a researcher has put together nearly $7 million in grants to study and boost the health of Asian Pacific Islanders, some 870,000 of whom live in Southern California and must deal with particular challenges with obesity and cancer. Other research on campus recently has targeted Asian American women and their reproductive health, particularly since some of the student-assisted work found that this group of females, while sexually active, used contraceptives less and were unlikely to undergo routine testing for disorders affecting women. And yet another Titan scholar has become a surprising expert for highly personal reasons on the topic of suicide among people, especially young women, of Asian descent; suicide is the second leading cause of death among Asian American women ages 15 to24 and women of Asian descent in this age group, joined by those older than 65, have the highest suicide rates across all racial-ethnic groups, experts say.  

In Santa Monica, the think tank folks have found thatGood Samaritans could get better, more cost effective results if only they would work harder to coordinate all those after-school programs aimed at helping kids; the full report available here details how, in principle, five cities have proved they can help more urban youngsters reach their fullest potential through the after-school programs if sponsors work together. Other researchers, meantime, have raised questions about the market for residential wind and flood insurance, coverages that were found tragically lacking and still have not been put back together five years after Hurricane Katrina.

In Riverside, itty-bitty guppies have told a tale of species' resilience after a poor, early start in life, while in Orange, little sea slugs, jolted by electricity and shocked by nasty lobster attacks, have provided intriguing insights into brain activity and memory.

In Claremont, researchers have created a computer model to help figure how to reduce public conflicts over the location of power lines and other transmission facilities for advanced but remote solar and wind power plants, while in Westchester, student broadcasters are celebrating the resolution of a frequency dispute so that campus radio station KXLU (88.9) can be heard without interference in eastern Los Angeles, including by underground hipsters in Silverlake, downtown and Pasadena.

 

National Medal of Science bestowed on 2 SoCal scholars

From Caltech & Chapman

Sure, it may seem as if the White House sometimes hands out coveted kudos like some kind of intellecutal candy, but there's still special cachet to be honored as among the nation's top 10 eminent researchers in science, engineering and invention. And in 2010, two of the National Medal of Science recipients come from Southern California. In Pasadena, Amnon Yariv, a professor of physics and electrical engineering (shown at left), becomes the 55th member of the distinguished faculty to receive one of his profession's highest accolades. He's a pioneer in the field of optoelectronics, a speciality in which researchers employ electronic devices to source, detect and control light. In Orange, Yakir Aharonov (shown at right) was named a Medal of Science recipient for his work in theoretical physics, especialy his explorations in the foundations of quantum physics and its implications. The school repeatedly has termed his pioneering work in his field as putting him on a sure path to a Nobel Prize. Previous esteemed scientists honored with the medal include Arnold Beckman, Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, Charles H. Townes, Edward Teller, James Cronin, Hans Dehmelt, Herbert Friedman, Willis E. Lamb and Berni Alder.

In Pasadena, Amon Yariv honored

In Orange, Yakir Aharonov honored

Take in a 'Grim Sleeper' talk, chess exhibition, print show

From CSULA, Caltech, Chapman & the Huntington

Rumble, rumble, rumble, ka-boom. Yes, there may be rolling thunderstorms, occasional sprinkles and muggy conditions prevailing this weekend. That's all the more reason to keep zipping around town to take in all the stuff going on.

That includes a forum in East L.A. this afternoon on the 'Grim Sleeper,' multiple homicide case and the forensic and DNA issues surrounding it, including the controversies over scanning not just individuals' but also families' genetic materials and records and how scientific advances may affect public crime labs. Or maybe if fun and games are the call, how about seeing a Russian chess master take on all challengers in a simultaneous exhibition in the Rose City this evening; may need to be a member of that super smart institution's official community to actually play. If art's the thing, it may be time for a stroll out to San Marino to take in the opening of an exhibition exploring the 'evolving ideas' of midcentury American printmakers. 

And a head's up on happenings on Monday, too

And, , yeah, they're really going to be part of the next work week. But head's up at least that if a certain kind of humor proves irresistible, alums of the 'National Lampoon' will be downtown Monday night for a free, public program (requires reservations) exploring the institution's big effect on pop culture and how time has left its personalities, ahem, 'drunk stoned brilliant dead.' There will be laughs of a different sort when the Orange County Bar members gather on Monday night hear the annual jousts between law school deans Erwin Chemerinsky and John C. Eastman about the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term; the barristers also will honor the presiding justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Three, in Santa Ana. And in Orange, starting Monday, for those feel the earth move under their feet (without Carole King singing in their heads), there will be an international, three-day, experts' workshop on electromagnetic signals associated with earthquakes and volcanoes.'

For legal scholars, court talk, publishing and status checks

From USC, Pepperdine, Southwestern & Chapman

With the usual caveat that the author of this post gets a check as an adjunct law prof in an institution housed in a landmark building near downtown L.A., let's play some catch-up with some legal matters of note around town. In Exposition Park and Malibu, it must be that time of year as the scholars are lining up to assay the doings of the Roberts Court. From the Art Deco confines of the historic Bullock's Wilshire building, meantime, a sometimes grumpy vice dean and his legal writing colleague tackle in bemused fashion the all-too-frequent and critical interrogatory from law students, especially first years: How do I survive and thrive in law school? The online sample chapter from their new tome both catches its flavor and offers some tasty tidbits, such as why students should see their profs during office hours and why they shouldn't diss their teachers. And speaking of legal scholars, just who, in academic terms, is among the fairest of them all? The folks in Orange, in touting the disconnect between the ever popular rankings of a certain fading newsweekly as opposed to some other measures, point to an academic effort to pinpoint profs and schools by their scholarly influence in the field. Hmmm.

In Exposition Park, the annual preview of the Supreme Court's new term

In Malibu, a published assessment of twists, turns in the Roberts court

Advice from a 'cranky prof' on succeeding in law school

Click here for a writing sample from Prof. Cranky

In Orange, a tout for the scholarly influence of law school, its faculty   

Click here to see schools, faculty ranked by 'scholarly influence'

In Orange, a $10 million boost for life sciences school

From Chapman

For science supporters in Orange, there's good, continuing news about the power and prominence of recreation. The Crean family, the founders of the Fleetwood Enterprise RV business and longtime backers of the school and Orange County philanthropists, have donated $10 million through their foundation for a John and Donna Crean life sciences school. It will, advocates say, bolster or set up work potentially in 'health sciences, computational biology, bioengineering, medical and the occupational radiological and environmental health sciences.' The school, it is said, will emphasize both research and hands-on efforts. The Creans have donated extensively already to the institution and their name adorns an orchestra recital hall, a dedicated sciences building, a library of film and television and a film and media archive. The late John Crean served as a university trustee.

John and Donna Crean family, via foundation, give new, more support to institution

Academic accolades for Doctors Jerry Lewis, Ranan Tata

From Chapman & Pepperdine

It's certainly no guarantee for tenure, security, acclaim or affluence. So why do thousands of Americans pound away still, building up huge debts and making complicated, freighted decisions about other aspects of their lives just so they can toss a tassle to one side on their mortarboards as they wear especially adorned antiquated robes and proclaim themselves 'doctors of philosophy?' So this all was worth, um, a half dozen and usually many more years of blood, tears, labor, study,  research and sacrifice? Congrats, all you docs out there. And while contemplating how much sweat equity went into that special sheepskin, enjoy today's thought that, at least in honorary terms, in a mere blink we all also can applaud two new Ph.D.s: Welcome, Dr. Lewis and Hello, Dr. Tata.

An honorary doctorate from folks in Orange for comedy legend Jerry Lewis

From Malibu to Taj Mahal, a trip to confer honorary Ph.D. on billionaire Ratan Tata

Green tomorrow a front and center focus on campuses

From UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, Occidental, Cal Poly Pomona, CSULB & Chapman

For those in northern climes, will global warming offer surprising boon?

It's not exactly an expected scenario. And, at root, it speaks to a vast global divide that will occur, experts say, due to dire circumstances associated with global warming: Those who live in what's now a vast, often desolate and lesser developed frigid northern climes will find themselves in a newly prosperous, resource rich, probably more affluent and favored zone of the planet when the global environment warms and shifts, a Bruin geographer predicts. This will lead to Canada, Scandinavia, Russia and the northern United States, he says, suddenly becoming beckoning havens, spots with, perhaps, the only abundant supplies of fresh water, abundant population growth and almost miraculously released natural resources, such as oil and gas supplies. Meantime, he sees wet places on earth getting wetter and parched spots getting even more so, with little cheery news at all for many of the highly populated spots on the present planet. He forecasts China as the world's economic superpower by 2050, with the U.S. sliding into the No. 2 spot and the longer rise of cities north of the 45th parallel. Los Angeles and other spots will still be major population centers and more folks will still be in traditional population centers but look to Seattle, Minneapoli-St. Paul, Toronto, Copenhagen, Moscow and other northern burghs to be the capitals of the climate change tomorrow.

A sunny forecast for northern lands in the era of drastic global climate change

Can student commuters find eco alternatives to cars, crowded parking?

• Now that Labor Day has come and gone and the calendar marks the end of summer, tens of thousands of students across the Southland have or soon will be racing back to campus, all too often commuting across considerable distances, one to a car, to get to classes and a higher education. And, if the responses from 500 students studied for a Fullerton research project are indicative at all, driving -- and especially stashing that car in costly, chaotic, congested parking -- is no fun at all for young people, who argue they have little choice about how they get to school. Three-quarters of those Orange County students motor to school, alone, researchers, including Edwin Shin and Jessica Watson, found in Prof. Ray Young's urban planning course. (Shin and Watson flank Young in Karen Tapia photo at right) Here's another big finding, though: Students who take public transportation or who bike or walk to school are much more satisfied with their commuting experience. The students involved in the academic research on commuting offered their own suggestions on how to provide incentives to get their peers out of the car-parking-commuting snaggle. In Westchester and Eagle Rock, though, school officials have taken one small step to cut down on the presence of so many vehicles, working, as many other campuses have, to provide the Zipcar program. The vehicle-sharing program aims to allow not only students but also neighbors to sign up for relatively affordable, short-term rental of cars.

In Fullerton, proof that the headache list often tops out with cars for commuting, campus parking

In Eagle Rock, a new sharing option for those who need a car only rarely

In Westchester, a way to cut congestion, parking through vehicle sharing program

How to power up, track better campus environmental programs

•  As long as there's going to be huge demand for big expanses to park student commuters' cars, well, why shouldn't such spots do double-duty and provide campus shade and solar generating spots, too? In Pomona, two new installations on the roof of a school gym (shown in photo at right) and with a canopy over a parking lot will help the school chip away at becoming 'carbon neutral.' The leased equipment, which also comes with grants and subsidies, will generate roughly 1.8 kilowatt hours of electricity annually for the campus, which has an annual, total electric consumption of some 45 million kilowatt hours, school officials say. But how best to monitor and encourage green practices at institutions of higher education? In Long Beach, where the school spends more than $7.5 million annually on utility costs, officials have created an intern program to help both track and spread best environmental practices with efforts such as a fall audit of classroom energy use and a residence hall competition to see which dorm can conserve the most power. And, in Orange, school officials are touting their participation in a new, 230-institution 'sustainability' program, which aims to provide greater accounting and transparency about campuses' environmental and conservation efforts. An aim of the 'STARS' program, in which the Orange County folks also hope to win some key certifications, is to provide an alternative to some existing efforts, which have drawn considerable criticism for their evaluation methods and seemingly punitive rating systems.

In Pomona, solar power arrays start popping up all over 

In Long Beach, interns help campus push its green programs

In Orange, joining up with consortium's new, more open monitoring of green campus efforts

Elie Wiesel accepts top fellowship, will teach in Orange

From Chapman University

Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Laureate, author and survivor of the Nazi death camps, has committed to five years of scholarship and teaching about the Holocaust, accepting a role as Distinguished Presidential Fellow at the university in Orange. He will retain his faculty post at Boston University but will make repeated visits to Southern California, helping scholars and undergrads never forget the horrors of the Nazi regime, as well as teaching history, French, religious study and literature. Wiesel twice before had visited and been honored by the school, home of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library. Wiesel has written more than 50 books, including the internationally acclaimed 'Night,' which recounts his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Nobel Laureate will boost Holocaust teaching, scholarship in multiple lecture visits

A look at stuff old, borrowed and blues-making in Orange

From Cal State Fullerton & Chapman University

Ah, this isn't about those summer brides and their seasonal weddings but the focus here still will be something old, something borrowed and stuff that might make us blue. The folks in Fullerton have pulled together a notable online centerpiece on the school's role in the archeological life of Orange County, which includes collegians teaching youngsters at the Bowers Museum's Kidseum about ancient matters and researchers (like Meredith Rivin, seen in Karen Tapia photo at left) preserving, curating and studying the county's trove of artifacts, archeological and paleontological, some dating back more than 60 million years. That, of course, may be how old some readers of this posting may feel after glancing through a posting from the folks in Orange, who, as the fall semester prepares to launch, just have to remind of us of the yawning differences in experiences of those who will make up the Class of 2014; some clever and mischievous folks in Beloit, Wisc., of course, compile an annual list of attributed attributes to freshmen. This year, they note in the borrowed info, that the kids coming into college this fall: for some reason haven't mastered cursive handwriting; think cable television is boring and even e-mail is too slow as a form of communication; and have only known Hollywood icon Clint ('Dirty Harry') Eastwood as the maker of movies with a great sensitivity and humanity.

A spotlight on Fullerton's roles in archeological, paleontological life in Orange County

The Class of 2014? Oh, my, yes they have some very different lives, experiences

Air time for 'Mathemagician,' 'Food Truck' chef, 'Hell' guide

From Harvey Mudd, Cal Poly Pomona & Chapman

Set the DVR or make the popcorn and pull up to the television, folks, because some locals will be making a broadcast splash. He's gotten our attention before but, for example, Mudder 'Mathemagician' Arthur Benjamin (shown at far right) will get his 15-minutes of BBC fame on Monday as part of the debut of the program dubbed 'What Makes a Genius?' If food stuff holds greater appeal, tune in Sunday as Danielle Law, a Bronco international business and marketing alumna turned French crepes chef nonpareil, appears with her husband and crew (shown at right) on the Food Channel as a competitor in the 'Great Food Truck Race' show with host Tyler Florence. And, if none of this appeals and a churlish attitude grips, well, perhaps there's a special place, time and broadcast for such difficult folks: pass through the 'Gates of Hell' for a tour Tuesday on the History Channel with Marvin Meyer, Ph. D. and Chapman's religious studies department chair and the Griset chair in Bible and Christian studies (shown at left).